§ Mr. John Evansasked the Secretary of State for Employment what was the total number of days lost through strike action, official and unofficial, in Great Britain in 1983; what were the comparable figures for each of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries; and what were the figures for the previous five years.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkThe available information is shown in the table. The figures relate only to total days lost in each OECD country, since no breakdown between official and unofficial stoppages is available.
31WIn the United Kingdom, details of stoppages known to be official ceased to be published after 1981. In the years 1978–1981, the number of working days lost through disputes known to be official is as follows:
Working Days Lost ('000) Total *of which known official 1978 9,405 4,052 1979 29,474 23,512 1980 11,964 10,081 1981 4,266 1,980 * It does not follow that the remainder were all unofficial.